PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 243 



and the cattle were wont to feed out some distance from the meander 

 line. 



During the summer some five years ago, through the deepening of the 

 outlet by a neighboring farmer, thus preventing the retention of the 

 spring rainfall, and the dryness of the summer which followed, the lake 

 went practically dry in places, and such water birds as still remained 

 were restricted to comparatively limited quarters. Through the co- 

 operation of the state game warden, George Lincoln, and at the urgent 

 request of the Ward Brothers, whose farm adjoined the lake,- an earth 

 and concrete dam was built so as to retain water up to a desired level. 

 The effect of this timely interference was noticeable in two ways. There 

 were vigorous protests on the part of certain farmers who had come to 

 believe during the years of drouth that all the exposed acreage adjacent 

 to their property belonged to them and had straightway proceeded to 

 fence it in. The second noticeable result was the swarming of large 

 flocks of ducks and other water birds that, driven in from surrounding 

 ponds which had dried up, came to this refuge where, by the scores and 

 hundreds, they could be seen standing on the mud flats and rat houses 

 or swimming in the open water. Gallimules, rails, coots and snipes, 

 herons, grebes and bitterns were observed in large numbers, and I have 

 never seen so many ducks at one time before or since. This compara- 

 tively small outlay was amply justified in that one season and many 

 times since. I have visited this lake again and again and always with 

 pleasure and profit. On its shores in an oak wood some 200 pairs of 

 black^crowned night herons have nested. Decimated by hunters and 

 frightened they have shifted their heronry from place to place. First 

 located in the willows of Wood lake, a small marsh near Eagle lake, 

 and draining into it, they next went to the poplars and oaks a mile away 

 and nearly a half mile from open water. A year ago they had again 

 moved to an oak covered hill nearer the marsh where in the tops of the 

 second growth they were better concealed and less liable to the attacks 

 of hunters, and their eggs were safe from marauding crows. Considering 

 a few similar places in Iowa where wild fowl may breed, the destruction 

 of this lake would be little short of a crime. If there is one legitimate 

 use more than another to which the hunters' license money might well 

 be applied it is the conservation of Iowa's limited water birds. 



As in other reform and conservation movements Jowa has furnished 

 great leaders, so in this effort to conserve the wild life of this continent 

 no greater leader has arisen than champion of the migratory bird law, 

 Dr. W. T. Hornaday. In his very soul he believes in his work and his 

 aggressive spirit and tireless energy have been given free rein in the 

 accomplishment of his herculean task. His convincing arguments and 

 his personality won others to his standard, but it was no easy fight to 

 route vicious practices such as plume hunting and spring shooting when 

 entrenched behind the almighty dollar and the lust to kill. 



May there not arise another lowan of similar abilities and kindred 

 spirit who shall be able to accomplish for our state what Dr. Hornaday 

 has accomplished for the nation, and shall not we who teach, whether 

 in university, college, or country school, bring to bear the conserving 



